Better Than YouTube
we’ve thrown educators to the wolves
in 2020 from a pandemic to stressors
beyond our wildest dreams with
distracting backgrounds in our students
lives
invading our virtual classroom in my
middle school classroom i have seen
students flopping around
falling out of their seats and even
snoozing on their laptop keyboards
and virtual learning has only
intensified
these behaviors therefore i’ve had to
put a large emphasis
on discussing how to prepare our bodies
for learning
by choosing to actively sit do this with
me
plant your feet roll your shoulders back
lift
your chest and feel your entire body
activate i want you to be as active
in this experience as humanly possible
since the global pandemic has entered
our communities in full force
every educator has done what they do
best
educators have committed to thinking on
their feet and developing learning
opportunities
no matter the hurdles ahead teachers
continue to spend
hours dissecting new technology tools
and creating new routines
to collaborate with colleagues and yet
with all these
tools and collaborations made available
most classroom instruction continues
to be rooted in the dark ages we can do
better
teachers are more than vessels to
transfer information
teachers are naturally innovative
teachers love
to inspire and teachers are
professionals at fostering deep thinking
we must stop putting teaching in a box
filled with direct instructional
approaches and instead
shift instruction to form a mastery
learning lens
mastery learning is a self-paced
approach that allows students
personalized opportunities for feedback
and the permission one needs to
fully master an idea let’s talk through
an example
i grew up with two biological parents
and six family friends
who might as well have been
blood-related these people attended
every birthday party dance recital
special education meeting and first date
i was ever a part of yes i did say first
date
but that’s a story for another time and
yes i did say special education but i’ll
talk more about that here in a little
bit
at our annual holiday party the same
trick using two
corks was shown every year look around
if you have something close by we’re
actively seated pick up two
objects similar in size to a marker cap
you can do this with any rectangular or
cylinder object
you may choose to roll up a piece of
paper grab two lip balm containers
or pick up two pen caps for this
challenge but don’t worry
if you don’t have something easily
accessible right now
you can attempt this challenge later
place one object in each hand between
your thumb
and forefinger now using your middle
finger and thumb
your goal is to transfer these items
from one hand to the other
at the same time the first time most
people attempt this challenge
they end up locking the marker caps
together
failing in their ability to make the
transfer without lifting their fingers
huh tricky huh the reality is
all of you can do it if i went step by
step
and showed you the correct placement
twisting your wrist ever so slightly and
modeling the movement in front of you
each
and every one of you would eventually be
successful in this task and then you
too could share this at your next
holiday party
but what if i was specific and the
amount of time you had to learn or the
number of tries you got
in this experience all right class step
right up you get
two opportunities to get this right the
reality is a small percentage of you
would find
success and others would fail only to be
left with two marker caps in your hands
not nearly as satisfying you deserve
the time it would take to master this
party trick and whether it be on the
third
or forty third try you deserve the
opportunity to learn
to be successful and to celebrate your
victory
that’s mastery learning mastery learning
isn’t new what is new
is how we utilize our current
technologies our latest resources so
that
students can be successful online tools
made available on platforms like youtube
do not replace teachers in the classroom
rather
these resources provide support to
deliver
the initial moments of instruction
anything you want to learn right
now exists for free on the internet on a
video online blogger podcast the
question is
what are you going to do about it
because in just a few clicks you
and any student can begin your learning
journey but how you
move from being familiar with the
concept
to fully understanding the inner
workings of an idea
that takes a master facilitator
remember the cork challenge let’s say
for the sake of example my mother made a
30 second youtube clip modeling how to
solve this tricky challenge and
as your teacher i provide you the
following instructions
either on your own or in a small group
crank
up the volume and watch this youtube
clip to learn how to successfully master
this challenge
remember videos have options to support
whatever type of learner you are so
utilize the rewind the fast forward the
pause
and the closed captioning as you see fit
but then
i want you to hop on a zoom call to
conference with me during our discussion
i’ll not only ask you to demonstrate
what you’ve learned
but take questions to foster discussion
around this idea
because it’s not only about the
execution of the task
i want you to dive deeper and explore
why conceptually this task is
challenging to grasp and where the
common hurdles are found in the process
of mastering it why
because i’m better than youtube i can
foster discussion i can facilitate
reflection
i can ensure learning is not only
consumed
but experienced i can ask you deeper
questions and follow up with
personalized feedback see
i don’t need to lecture to the masses
over and over
while you sit quietly trying to keep up
i
can instead utilize a platform filled
with curated content to support you in
forming a
basic understanding of this idea
providing me
as your instructor the freedom to
converse with you as you dive deeper in
your depth of knowledge
and i can grant you the support and
personalized feedback
you need to be successful every single
time because you
deserve to learn whether it takes you 3
or 43 tries that’s mastery learning
mastery learning would have honestly
changed my life when i was young there
were a lot of skills
that took me 43 times or more to learn
miss davison my second grade teacher
along with the support of my school
special education department
diagnosed me s l d
specific learning disability in math
reading and writing what does that mean
well to me
it meant i was incapable of learning it
was my understanding that reading was
the avenue to consuming knowledge
therefore if you can’t read you can’t
learn
i vividly remember being seated in a
desk in middle school as my teacher
asked me to get back to work and i
looked her in the eye and said
i can’t do this i can’t read what you’ve
handed me
as i sat back in my chair in tears
blurred my vision
actually to lend some perspective i
think i’m the only sixth grade math
teacher who’s ever received a d
in sixth grade math in high school i was
told
that i was not even college material and
that illinois state university was
too far out of my reach so
how did i go from being labeled not
college bound
to teaching a class at isu earning a
master’s degree in education
and publishing two books not even a
decade later
by demanding mastery learning
opportunities
even while writing this ted speech i
would type my ideas in a google doc
because by the way i’ve totally mastered
some epic typing skills after competing
against my middle school students
but in the process of editing rather
than re-reading the text in front of me
i use
a chrome extension to read the text back
in audio form i consume 80 to 90 percent
of text whether it be in a book article
email or lengthy text message
in audio form i consider those audio
add-ons
my lifeline for learning because being a
good teacher
is not only about adapting or modifying
learning opportunities for students to
best fit their individual needs
but allowing each student the time
and support to take ownership and see
the power in mastering these skills
that is mastery learning
mastery learning also known as
competency-based learning or
outcome-based learning
has been strongly supported by the
academic literature the meta-analysis of
108 independent studies on the effects
of mastery learning conducted by kulik
kulik and banker and drones in 1990
showed that mastery learning had a
moderate to positive effect
on student performance thomas r guskey
a widely respected mastery learning
expert
and professor emeritus in the college of
education at the university of kentucky
defined mastery learning as a
philosophically based approach to
teaching and learning
he classified the concept back in 1980
as a new way of educational thinking now
nearly
40 years later these concepts are still
only found in classrooms labeled
progressive anderson and burns
seen as mastery learning experts
following decades of their educational
research
published a study in 1987 highlighting
the focus
on time and attempts it may take a
student to learn a concept
as completely arbitrary recognizing that
whether it took a student 3
or 43 times to master an idea the
ability to learn should not be dismissed
based on an arbitrary social norm
unsupported by research and driven by
impatience or political agendas
we may be on a roller coaster
this year but with an invested teacher
and progressive mastery learning
practices
combined with our current technological
capabilities
no one can stop an intrinsically
motivated learner
not even 20 20. so here’s your
assignment
educators choose to think differently
and see yourself as more
than just a vessel to transfer
information choose instead
to serve in a role as a facilitator of
exploration
students see every video every podcast
and
every book as an opportunity to learn
consumable information is everywhere
community members demand support for
your school teachers and utilizing
effective 21st century practices
where do you begin get your teachers
training
on utilizing these progressive concepts
through professional development
opportunities
let’s leave the low level direct
instruction
to youtube clips and transform teachers
from content delivery systems into
facilitators of learning for all
because if if we choose to make these
ships
both within ourselves and in partnership
with those around us
our classrooms will not reflect an
ancient way of thinking and instead
will support and inspire a mindset of
problem solvers
dedicated to constructing a world we
cannot
yet even imagine now
let’s pick up those marker caps and
let’s try this again
thank you